Healing Wounds (Completed)

Chapter 27 (Edited)

There is no hope without fear and no fear without hope.
-Baruch Spinoza

Three days later. . .

The banging on the door cut across the silent night and startled the Bullock women from their sleep.

The women rushed out of their rooms and met at the end of the hallway.

Their body shook as the knocking on their front door increased.

Who could it be? They wondered.

They looked around for a weapon.

Tara raced to the kitchen and appeared with a frying pan.

Dora sprinted to the sitting room and came back swinging a baseball bat.

Armed with their weapons, they crept to the door that shook from the pressure on it.

They crawled along the wall as they reached the door.

Their hearts pounded and they said a prayer for protection and guidance.

They stalled as they came face to face with the door.

Dora took the key hanging on its hanger. Her hand shook as she grew closer to the door.

"Be careful, Mom," Tara whispered from behind her.

Dora closed her eyes and took a deep breath.

"Help me, Lord!"

She turned the key and pulled the door open.

The women gasped as they stared in shock at the figure at their doorstep.

Ayodeji pushed the door and staggered in. The smell of vodka followed him in.

"Home sweet ho. . ." he trailed off as he slumped on the couch and fell asleep.

His loud snore resounded through the room.

Tara stared at the person she once called Daddy. She whirled around and faced her mother who was trembling as she looked at the sleeping figure.

Tara placed the frying pan she held on the table and took a few steps forward and locked the door. She returned and took the bat from her mother's hand and kept it beside the frying pan.

Wrapping her arms around Dora, she led her to the two-seater chair opposite the couch.

Dora's eyes remained glued to the sleeping figure of her estranged husband.

"Are you okay, Mom?" Tara rubbed her mother's arm as she took a seat beside her.

Dora's hand shook and her lips trembled. "What is he doing here?" she rasped out. "Why did he come back?" Tears began to build up in her eyes.

Tara exhaled and continued rubbing her arm.

"Hasn't he caused us enough pain?" Her tears fully rushed out.

Tara blinked back tears and engulfed her mother in a comforting hug.

Dora buried her face in her neck and wailed as the horrid memories rushed back.

Tears fell out of her eyes as she caressed her mother's back.

Tara cried for her mother who was breaking down for the first time since their separation.

Dora's body shook in Tara's arms as her tears poured out. Tara felt a wet patch form on her nightgown but she didn't care.

She vowed to herself that she would be strong for her mother who had always been there for her, through thick and thin. Through her phase of naughtiness and redemption.